Gut Check

Potluck Café is a haven for weird foodstuffs.

by Trey Popp

The first time I saw "sautéed entrails" on a menu, I thought it would be more prudent to order "spicy pork blood rice noodle" instead.

Potluck Café, which opened in Chinatown right around the turn of the year, offers both dishes — and that hardly scratches the surface. Potluck serves literally hundreds of offbeat (and offal-based) entrées. Frog, hairtail fish, loofah sponge — it's hard to think of a multicellular organism you can't order at this place.

As you'd expect from the no-frills dining room, Potluck is both inexpensive and decidedly under the radar. Lunchtime or dinner hour, I've never seen much of a crowd inside. But as someone who has eaten insects and liked them, I had to give it a try.

I learned one thing straight away: It is not a good place to bring your pregnant wife on a night that she's suggested a burger and fries at the Bishop's Collar. Nevertheless, that misstep provided a good opportunity to taste some of Potluck's tamer fare.

Sliced eggplant cooked with pork over very high heat was the highlight of that meal; a handful of Thai basil punched up the flavor to just the right pitch. The sweet-sour dichotomy in a bowl of butterfly swallow soup was fine, but I was disappointed by the ma po tofu — whose classic ground pork had been replaced with big slivers, undercutting the potential depth of the sauce, which unfortunately tasted like instant chicken bouillon.

Rabbit with brewer's-grain sauce was too mild to excite, and packed with tiny, sharp bones that were a little frightening. Take care not to precede this dish with too much of the brewer's actual brew. That "spicy pork blood rice noodle," on the other hand, melded the mild flavor of congealed blood cubes with crunchy bits of cabbage and a tongue-tingling broth.

The pleasantest surprise came in the form of country-style pork tongue. Minced (and perhaps slightly pickled) ginger nuzzled up against thin slices of that muscle, whose savory profile married well with a slightly sweet soy dipping sauce.

"Stir-fried w/ Long Life Noodles" didn't win any awards for precision description, but the long vermicelli turned out to be studded with shredded pork and intensely flavorful shiitakes — definitely a fungus lover's special. Shredded beef with bitter melon, however, was a one-note dish that lost interest quickly. Potluck is a hit-or-miss spot.

And those sautéed entrails? Let's just say that they came from a pig, were served with a piquant sweet-spicy sauce, and I was glad I ordered them takeout. One bite made it into my own entrails, but the second ended up in the sink. Gives me an idea for a new menu item: sausage.

(t_popp@citypaper.net)

Potluck Café

220 N. 10th St., 215-627-5898

Hours: Daily, 2 p.m.-3 a.m.

Appetizers, $1-$11.95; Entrées, $7.95-$14.95